


Blame

by mommymuffin



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Awful Feels, Gen, Guilt, Major Spoiler for Episode 03x23, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 06:31:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1335532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mommymuffin/pseuds/mommymuffin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>MAJOR SPOILER</p><p>Derek knows how to help Stiles stop blaming himself for Allison’s death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blame

**Author's Note:**

> I. Hate myself. For writing this.
> 
> I feel like Stiles would do this. Will do this? Oh god...
> 
> No pairings unless you wanna squint. God only knows what’s going to happen in the next episode, but this is supposed to be after it. 
> 
> Can I just mention how much I love how teamwork-y Derek and Chris have gotten by the way? That's really where this idea come from...or something...then it just...I don't know. But I do know that I just want to hold all these characters safe in my arms and just cuddle them and tell them it's okay (even though it's not, it's not okay) and just protect them from all the bad people and all the bad things and just set the town of Beacon Hills and its stupid magical forest on fire and walk away into the sunset holding hands and skipping.

Derek walks through the cemetery slowly, taking his time to reach his destination even though it's the last place he wants to be right now. The quiet is welcome after the chaos, but the aftermath it brings with it is not.

He isn't surprised when he gets to the gravestone and someone is already there. He isn't surprised it's Stiles either.

The boy is visibly devastated: guilt and wretchedness and hurt. Derek knows that look well. It's one he wore for a very long time.

He approaches the marker that reads 'Allison Argent' and sets the bouquet down without a word. He stands back up almost shoulder to shoulder with Stiles.

"I didn't peg you as the flower type," Stiles says, a sparse amount of his usual sarcastic humor in his voice.

"I'm not," Derek says.

The humor is completely gone when he says, "I didn't peg you to care about her enough to bring them for her either."

Derek is silent for a moment. "In the end we were allies. That's all that matters."

"That's awfully big of you. Forgiving them like that."

Derek shrugs. "They did the same for me. Flowers are the least I can do." It's a beat before he adds, "It's as much for Chris as it is for her. He'll see them when he comes and it…"

Derek is studying the amassed floral arrangements around the grave. There are at least six bouquets; six people who cared about her and will miss her too; six people who will be there to share in their grief when Chris feels the most alone he's ever felt in his life.

Stiles nods. "It helps, right?"

"Yeah. It helps."

Stiles is quiet for a long moment. Derek can smell the salt in the air right before he speaks.

"I killed her."

"You didn't. The nogitsune—“

"I know—“ Stiles shouts suddenly, angrier than Derek has ever seen him, when he rounds on the werewolf, "—what the nogitsune did. I know. But it...took my body. And I—I should have been able to stop it."

"No. No one expected that of you. None of this was your fault. Nothing that happened is on _you_ , Stiles. It's not your fault."

"But it is. And they all...they all blame me. They all say they don't, but they do, they have to, how can the not? Scott and Lydia and Isaac and...a-and Chris. Oh god, Chris. He—he should have shot me when he had the chance. He should have just killed me and this wouldn't have—“

"Stiles!" Derek roars, roughly grabbing the boy by the arm. "None of this is your fault. No one blames you. So don't blame yourself. I know...I know _exactly_ what this feels like and I know exactly what it will do to you. You need to stop right now or you'll become like me."

Stiles stares up at him with wide, wet eyes, just before his face crumples.

"But…"

"No. No buts. Come on," Derek says, bodily yanking Stiles down the path. He shoves him into his car. Stiles is too upset to protest. He doesn't even ask where they're going.

When Derek pulls up in front of a familiar complex, he breathes out, "No." Then, louder, "No. Derek, no! I—I can't face him!"

"Get out of the car," Derek says and pulls him out when Stiles doesn't comply.

He takes him up to the correct floor, knocks on the door, and waits with a tight grip on Stiles bicep so he can't go anywhere. For his part Stiles is hunched inward and looking every bit like he's trying to withdraw into himself.

Chris answers the door. He still looks strong even through all of this. He smells like misery and disaster and sorrow all rolled into one though. He still stands straight and tall and his face is blank until he sees who it is, giving way to surprise.

"Derek. Stiles. What are you doing here?"

"May we come in?" Derek asks.

"Yes. Of course," Chris says and steps aside to let them pass. They don't go any farther than the front hall. Derek understands that almost every room in the house is a room Chris doesn't want to be in right now.

Stiles won't make eye contact, but Derek jostles his arm and says, "Stiles is blaming himself for Allison's death."

Chris blinks in surprise, obviously taken aback by the blunt statement. "What...Stiles, why would you do that?"

Stiles does look up then. "Because it's _my fault_ ," he says. "Because—“ He has to swallow thickly before he continues. "Because all of this is my fault. It was my body and I should have been able to do something, to stop him somehow, but I can't help anyone ever, I can't save anyone and I keep trying and I just wish you had killed me because it would have been better me than her—“

" _Stiles_ ," Chris barks and Stiles jumps. "Don't you dare dishonor my daughter's memory by being ungrateful for your own life. Allison died protecting her friends and that included you. It included you the whole time throughout this whole goddamn mess. So don't you pretend that she died for nothing. That it all could have been prevented if you had just tried a little harder. Because that's not how any of this works and you know it. She died to save her best friend and to save you, so don't you ever, _ever_ act ungrateful about being alive again."

Chris is practically steaming from the ears and both humans in the room are breathing harshly as a stark silence settles in.

Chris straightens up and swallows, gets a hold of himself, before he says in a much more even tone, "I don't regret not killing you, Stiles. And I don't blame you for Allison's death."

Stiles shrinks away, tries to curl into himself again and Chris puts a hand on his shoulder in a firm, sort of fatherly fashion. "I don't blame you. Stiles. I. Don't. Blame you. I don't."

Stiles looks up at him and his expression is raw and vulnerable and aching.

Chris looks at him steadily and says, "I don't blame you."

Stiles hiccups and jerks as a sob wracks his body. The tears start anew and Chris pulls him into an embrace. The man is crying himself now, too, as he repeats "I don't blame you," over and over again.

 _Good_ , Derek thinks. Chris got through to him. Stiles had been digging his own grave for sure, Derek knows from experience. It doesn't matter how many times it's said to you, it matters who says it. No one had ever said it to Derek, because Derek had never told anyone it was his fault, out of shame or guilt or teenaged stupidity, who knows. But he had guessed that Chris was who Stiles really needed to hear it from because it was Chris who was the one left alone at the end of all of this. As much as Scott and Lydia and Isaac had loved her, they all still had their families to comfort them in their time of loss, surrogate as they might be in Isaac's case and even Scott's, whose "father" had really been the Sheriff for years. And they still had each other.

But Chris was alone now and Stiles on some level knew that Chris would be suffering the most and therefore Chris was the one who needed to forgive him the most.

Chris hadn't lied. He really didn't blame Stiles, probably never had, because that's just the kind of man Chris Argent is.

Derek's learned at least that much in the past weeks.

Stiles stops crying eventually and Chris straightens him up and gives him a stern look.

"You'll stop saying it's your fault now?"

"...Yeah...Yeah." Stiles says, more firmly the second time.

"Good. Derek," Chris says, looking to the other man. "Thank you for bringing him here. I didn't even think…"

Derek nods. "Takes one to know one," is all he says.

Then he tells Chris he'll take Stiles home and he'll see him around.

Chris nods resolutely and Derek is reassured that Chris will be all right.

As they drive to the Stilinski home in silence, Derek glances at Stiles occasionally and notices he seems less upset, more tired than anything, now. He has every right to be. The final fight with the nogitsune was not an easy one for any of them and Stiles barely made it out alive on top of all the emotional turmoil swirling around him.

But he smells calmer now. Accepting.

Derek takes a deep breath and knows that Stiles will be all right, too.

They'll all be all right.

 Someday.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> http://mommymuffin.tumblr.com/


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